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<h1><a name="SECTION0021500000000000000000">
19.5 <tt class="module">wave</tt> --
         Read and write WAV files</a>
</h1>

<p>
<a name="module-wave"></a>

<p>
The <tt class="module">wave</tt> module provides a convenient interface to the WAV sound
format. It does not support compression/decompression, but it does support
mono/stereo.

<p>
The <tt class="module">wave</tt> module defines the following function and exception:

<p>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
  <td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-4603' xml:id='l2h-4603' class="function">open</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
  <td><var>file</var><big>[</big><var>, mode</var><big>]</big><var></var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
If <var>file</var> is a string, open the file by that name, other treat it
as a seekable file-like object. <var>mode</var> can be any of
<dl>
<dt><strong><code>'r'</code>, <code>'rb'</code></strong></dt>
<dd>Read only mode.
        
</dd>
<dt><strong><code>'w'</code>, <code>'wb'</code></strong></dt>
<dd>Write only mode.
</dd>
</dl>
Note that it does not allow read/write WAV files.

<p>
A <var>mode</var> of <code>'r'</code> or <code>'rb'</code> returns a <tt class="class">Wave_read</tt>
object, while a <var>mode</var> of <code>'w'</code> or <code>'wb'</code> returns
a <tt class="class">Wave_write</tt> object.  If <var>mode</var> is omitted and a file-like 
object is passed as <var>file</var>, <code><var>file</var>.mode</code> is used as the
default value for <var>mode</var> (the "<tt class="character">b</tt>" flag is still added if 
necessary).
</dl>

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<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
  <td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-4604' xml:id='l2h-4604' class="function">openfp</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
  <td><var>file, mode</var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
A synonym for <tt class="function">open()</tt>, maintained for backwards compatibility.
</dl>

<p>
<dl><dt><b><span class="typelabel">exception</span>&nbsp;<tt id='l2h-4605' xml:id='l2h-4605' class="exception">Error</tt></b></dt>
<dd>
An error raised when something is impossible because it violates the
WAV specification or hits an implementation deficiency.
</dd></dl>

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<span class="release-info">Release 2.5.1, documentation updated on 18th April, 2007.</span>
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